Joe Schmitt

I was at the game, and watching, and I still have no idea what was going on for the Castro play. It was like he just decided not to try. I was baffled. So was everyone sitting around me. We should have had two runners on with no outs (and then a three run HR as well).

I was shocked to see Pablo start the 6th. He needs to leave now.

Yeah I know. It's not rational. And yet.

It's bad to hold grudges but . . . I hope the Twins destroy Mahle today. He owes them a lot more than one win.

The question is, at least in part, how much credit do you give him for the development of the young pitchers. The Twins would be in terrible shape at the moment without SWR, Festa, Varland and the young relievers. I'm inclined to credit at least some of that to CV.

I think it is possible that the Twins could trade Vazquez at the end of the year. He is due to make $10M, and given his production, he's probably worth that - in other words, I expect that there are teams who would want to trade for him, a la Polanco last year. But I hope they don't trade him - I don't see a replacement right now, and he's crucially important for multiple reasons (keeping Jeffers fresh and healthy, managing the pitching staff, and providing decent offense).

I'm impressed with the work, bean, thanks. That is more stability than I expected in those figures. I still think that it won't work across eras, but maybe there is enough stability to use this metric for this era. The other issue, which several people highlighted, is people who are hot for a period of time, and appear on the list, but are not aces, or people who are cold for a period of time, but are still aces. Dating myself, Anderson had a great freaking year and put himself on this list once upon a time, but Viola was the ace. Anderson was never an ace even if he won the ERA title that year. I think Carlos Silva probably made the list once upon a time as well. That having been said, this is still useful. I just would take it with a grain of salt.

Sorry to be dense . . . but are you saying that because Richards has reverse splits we want him to pitch the 9th instead of our closer? Yikes, can't we come up with a better option than that?

Why Duran for the 8th? Aren't the better hitters slated for the 9th? And, I mean, it's the 9th?

GO DIAMONDBACKS

That lineup is not close our best, but . . . still is not terrible. As compared to yesterday's lineup, we're replacing Vazquez, Miranda and Buxton with Jeffers, Santana and Margot. Which is marginally worse but not falling off a cliff or anything. It's a testament to the team's depth. Still, I'd sure like to see Castro-Miranda-Correa-Lewis-Buxton-Kepler-Santana-Wallnach-Jeffers sometime.

I was at this game and it has been a long, long time since I've seen such poor quality of play. The White Sox were awful in the field. The Twins were better but that's a purely relative statement. Aside from Miranda (wow, some good plays at first!) and Buxton (I gave him a long standing ovation, what a great play) the Twins fielding was bad. The pitchers were worse. No one could throw strikes. They threw wild pitches. Balked multiple players over. Walked a player with the bases loaded. Walked the #9 hitting multiple times. What a terrible game. I mean, glad the Twins won. But I need a chaser after that game.

So . . . the problem I have with this - actually with all of this - is that none of is calibrated to what is happening with the rest of the league. Sometimes ERAs are higher than other times. Using this formula there were many. many aces in the '60s. The same formula would have produced very few aces during the high run eras. Another way to put it is: how many "aces" do you think there are in MLB right now? Are you suggesting there are five of them? Others are suggesting that because the Twins don't have an ace we are doomed. So 2/3 of the teams in the playoffs are doomed? Somehow we need to calibrate this to actual performance so we can evaluate the teams against one another.

the high point of every Friday morning is Randballs Stu

"Viola was as good as Johan Santana in his prime back then, and he put up 8.1 WAR in 1987." I loved Frankie V, I really did, but he wasn't Santana in his prime. Viola never won the triple crown for heaven's sake.